Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 910: Legacy of Ancient Civilisation II

CH910 Legacy of Ancient Civilisation II

***

As they walked down the staircase, Mordor felt as if he had transferred to a different space.

Murals on the sides of the downward spiral came to life before his eyes, as if telling a story.

In Mordor’s vision, he saw a massive human civilisation. The entire civilisation seemed to be moving under one centralised command as they prepared for a great ritual.

The ritual activated successfully, but then, a massive accident occurred. A terrifying presence descended from the heavens, wiping out the entire civilisation, withering them to dust—dust so vast that the grounds of the entire civilisation became a desert overnight.

A rupture occurred in space, and disgusting feral creatures rushed out of it, quickly claiming the desert.

However, that was not all.

There were a few survivors from the civilisation—children too young to have participated in the ritual.

However, these children were not completely spared from the repercussions of the actions of their parents and civilisation.

Thick gusts formed from the withered dust of the civilisation, ripping the arriving monstrosities to shreds before gathering the children into a single location—safe from the arriving monstrosities.

The gusts of dust and sand then formed a cyclone barrier around the location, protecting the children until they grew—grew enough to protect themselves based on the knowledge left behind in their memories.

Once this happened, the last of the cyclone barrier disappeared, leaving the adolescents exposed to the monstrosities.

However, surprisingly, the monstrosities didn’t attack.

Instead, they walked past them as if they were one of their own.

It was at this moment that Mordor realised the reason.

The payment the children paid for protection was to become similar to the monstrosities they were protected from.

"This..." Mordor’s eyes widened in alarm.

"We are here." Agrut’s voice broke Mordor from his trance.

"Shaman Chief, this..." Mordor muttered.

"Patience, child. I brought you here to know the truth. I shall answer all your questions. But first, look at this."

Agrut drew Mordor’s attention to a strange box placed upon an altar.

The box radiated great power and an intuitive sense of deterrence.

"What is this...?" Mordor couldn’t help asking as he took a cautious step back.

"An item which caused the fall of an ancient civilisation—or rather, a piece of it," Agrut said.

He turned to the box and revealed, "The Box of Greed."

Elsewhere, Sugud had also found his way home.

As he arrived at the familiar dwarven cottage-style home, Sugud looked through the window to see his father drinking from a large jug of alcohol.

Then, his mother walked over from the inner corridor to snatch the jug from her husband with a reprimanding look.

Sugud’s eyes watered as he noticed his parents had visibly aged.

He figured the news of the accident that befell the expeditionary team was not taken very well by his parents. His father looked like a drunk who found solace at the bottom of the jug, while his mother no longer looked like the radiant elf he remembered.

"Don’t worry, Mum, Dad... I am back now," Sugud muttered to himself.

He disembarked from the carriage carrying his luggage, then walked over to the door and knocked.

Knock~!

Sugud’s mother, Kaylyn Mitchell, opened the door. For a moment, the elf, who now looked to be in her middle age, froze in shock. She covered her mouth to stifle her instinctive cry as tears pooled in her eyes.

"I am back, Mother," Sugud said with a gentle smile.

That was enough.

"My boy!" Kaylyn pounced on him, pulling him into her embrace as tears ran down her cheeks.

The commotion alerted her husband, Sinla Ironhost, whose drunken, dazed eyes cleared immediately as he rushed to the door.

"Sugud..." he muttered as he saw his wife hugging their son’s familiar yet unfamiliar face.

"Sugud!" He also rushed forward, hugging mother and son together with his stocky arms.

Kaylyn looked behind her at her husband.

"See, I told you my boy would be okay. He returned just as I said," she said.

"Yes, yes. You are right, my lovely wife. You are always right," Sinla quickly replied.

Sugud unconsciously chuckled at their antics.

"I missed you, Mother, Father," he said, hugging them tighter.

"We missed you too." His parents hugged him back.

Not long after, Sugud and his parents separated long enough to help him bring his interspatial storage chests into the house.

While Sinla and Sugud put away the latter’s things in his small research space at the back of the cottage-style house, Kaylyn walked over to her garden, which looked less well cared for than Sugud remembered.

She took out some seeds from a pouch at her waist and threw them onto the floor.

A domain expanded around her, and three different sprouts shot out from the soil. Then, under Kaylyn’s control of her Domain, the sprouts grew towards each other, fusing into a grafted plant.

Kaylyn knelt before it and carefully cut off the young leaves of the new plant with a pair of garden scissors.

"Mom, your Domain..." Sugud was stunned. "You made it to Tier V?"

"Yes, I did." Kaylyn confirmed with a soft smile. "The project I was working on before your travel worked out, and I confirmed my chosen philosophy. After I fused it into my Artisan Domain, I broke through."

"That’s great, Mum." Sugud hugged her, genuinely happy for her.

Sinla just quietly watched his wife.

He had only told her Sugud was missing after she completed the project. Although she didn’t say it, there was a period of time after the incident when Kaylyn blamed him for it.

Although there was nothing she could have done, the woman would have rather done whatever she could to get her son back than work on a progression project.

The thought hollowed her out, and she aged significantly despite her elven heritage.

Until this day, when Sugud returned, she hadn’t used her Grandmaster Domain—not even once. So, this was the first time Sinla himself was seeing his wife’s Grandmaster philosophy.

"Enough about me. Come help me with the tea. You can tell me all about your journey," Kaylyn said.

She packed up the leaves she had just gathered and pulled Sugud back into their house.

The family of three worked together to process the leaves into tea while Sugud narrated the epic tale of their maiden Interplanar Expedition.

"You’ve really taken to young master Alex. Your story can be summed up as young master Alex this, young master Alex that," Sinla commented.

His words interrupted Sugud as he was reaching the latest development within the Frontier March.

"That’s because Young Master Alex is not only a genius, but a visionary as well," Sugud replied.

Sugud placed a projector comms tool on the table and projected the image of the Mana Motor.

"Young Master Alex came up with this device. With it, we can power many things. In the Plane, we’ve been able to power factories, infrastructure, and even mountless carriages. Recently, Young Master Alex even envisioned a modification that would allow us to use it in a weapon. More importantly, I believe I can tweak the design to enable me to use it as a power core in my robots," Sugud bragged.

"Robots?" His parents raised an eyebrow.

"That’s what Young Master Alex calls my constructs. I will soon be able to power them and get them to move autonomously," Sugud revealed.

"They’ve improved that much?" Sinla asked.

Sugud confirmed with a nod.

"Do you want me to show you?" he asked with a smile.

Sinla and Kaylyn looked at each other, then nodded.

The family of three returned to Sugud’s little workshop, where Sugud presented the latest developments of his lifelong project.

--

After the quiet moment at the top of the Enclave’s main spire, Alex and Zora returned to Alex’s residence in the Enclave.

There, they met a familiar figure—Alex’s first retainer, Space Mage Asta.

***